


Sweet Dreams

by Wei (wei_jiangling)



Category: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
Genre: Comforting touch, Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Gen, Marv is a sweetheart, Multi, So is Ahim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-23 21:50:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12517324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wei_jiangling/pseuds/Wei
Summary: When the crew has nightmares, there's always a comforting hand on their shoulder.





	Sweet Dreams

It's been a long and tiring day, running around the town in another thus far fruitless search for the next clue to their treasure, discovering the difference between tiger cats and tiger children, and picking up martial arts. The latter was a spur of the moment decision, and it didn't occur to her at the time how draining adding a martial arts class to her otherwise energetic day was going to be. Ahim isn't discouraged—what reason should she have to be, really--but for now, she is tired. 

She watches idly from her spot on the couch as the others go about their evening, bantering amongst themselves and wondering exactly why they still have a cat on board when that wasn't the answer after all. The longer she sits, the cushions of the couch around her seem more and more comfortable, and her eyelids seem heavier and heavier. Eventually, she drifts off to sleep. 

*

In her dreams, there's a battle. She fights alongside the rest of the crew, and it's the same as always, except it doesn't stay that way. The longer it goes, the more obvious it is. She's the weakest. Less trained. Slower. A hindrance. 

It shouldn't be so clear, or so intensely frustrating. If it was life, she'd do her best and move on. But dreams have a way of amplifying everything that's wrong, latching onto anxiety and despair and dragging the dreamer down into them. The enemy runs, the rest follow, and she can't catch up. She's left alone, only able to watch as the others fight in the distance, her contributions forgotten, and she falls to her knees in the indistinct non-scenery of a nightmare.

Suddenly, there's a hand on her shoulder.

Surprised, she looks up, and follows the path of the arm to find Marvelous peering down at her with just a hint of that cocky smile of his. Until this moment, she was sure he had run off along with everyone else.

"Get up,” he says. “Everyone's waiting for you."

Are they, she wonders? Peering off into the hazy distance, it doesn't seem true. She shakes her head. "I can't fight like them. I'll only slow everyone down."

"Isn't that what you're doing now?" There's a serious look in his eyes when she turns back to him, and slowly the meaning of the words sinks in. Why is here? He could be with the others. He could be fighting. Yet, here he is, joining her on the sidelines, where neither of them can do any good.

Proving she's important.

(Some part of her mind, one step more conscious, wonders whether that's what he'd do if this really happened, her losing her nerve in the middle of a fight. Then she wonders why she had to wonder.)

"Did you get it?" He asks, seeming to read the answer on her face even though she hasn't said anything. She nods, slowly, and he smiles. "Get up, then. I won't let any of my crew get left behind." She returns the smile and calmly, confidently gets to her feet. 

From there her dreams don't matter so much, because they're all pleasant.

*

She wakes to morning light streaming in through the windows of the ship and the smell of cooking eggs. And, she notices a little belatedly, a piece of her dream that seems to have become reality. There's a hand on her shoulder, and when she follows the arm resting more on the back of the couch than on her, she finds Marvelous asleep a short distance away.

"Ah?" Surprised, she jumps. It's not dramatic, but it's enough to shake the hand from her shoulder, and Marvelous stirs as his arm slips off the back of the couch and down to his side. Unsure exactly what to think, she only stares at him, but he barely seems to notice. 

In fact, the most she gets is a short glance before he turns his attention to the others, quickly getting up and making his way toward the food. “What's for breakfast?”

She watches him walk away, her gaze then shifting in turn to each of the others. They must have noticed how she and Marvelous had been sleeping. They had been very easily in plain sight, and while it didn't seem so much to make a big deal over, she'd been surprised enough. Yet somehow, no one else seems to have even blinked.

Suddenly she can't help but feel as if there might be some sort of joke here that she hasn't yet been let in on, but she's not sure how to ask.

*

Once breakfast is over, her odd night has been all but forgotten. That is, until a casual comment from Joe brings it back into the light. 

"You had a nightmare last night, didn't you?" 

The words surprise her, and she looks over at him, lightly tilting her head to one side in confusion. That's certainly not wrong, but... "How do you know?"

He glances to where Marvelous has taken up his usual game of darts on the other side of the room. "Just a guess."

Following his gaze, she remembers the circumstances under which she woke up that morning. It seems that hadn't gone unnoticed, after all. Though the implications of the question are interesting. Had it been that Marvelous noticed her distress in her sleep? 

"Is that why he was like that?” she asks, and then realises it's not the only question she has. “Does he do that often?”

Joe replies to the first with a nod, and the second a little more thoughtfully. “Not much, but sometimes, when he notices. I'd guess that's happened at least once to everyone here.”

“What about you?” she can't help but ask.

“More than once,” he replies, though the way of it says clearly enough that he's not likely to elaborate.

*

It's another night, up in the crow's nest, when she asks Luka whether she's ever had a similar experience. 

“More than that,” she replies, an expression on her face that's somewhere between frustration and fond amusement, "I woke up once because he fell over on me."

Ahim's eyes widen, thinking about that. It was surprising enough waking up to a hand lightly on her shoulder. "What did you do?"

"What do you think?” Luka looks at her with a raised eyebrow. “I was new to the crew then and woke up with a man in my lap. I threw him across the room." She lets the comment land, and then she laughs. “He probably just had been beside me and fell over in his sleep, but it really was a shock.” Looking up to the sky thoughtfully, she adds, “He's been a bit more careful since then."

Ahim thinks back on her own experience, Marvelous's hand resting on her so gently it took her a second to notice when she woke, and his entire arm's length between them, and finds a quiet smile on her lips.

“Yes, I suppose so.”

*

“Did he appear in your dream?” Doc asks when she manages to bring it up with him, and it occurs to her that he's the first to mention that part of it. She hadn't wanted to pry with the others enough to ask.

With a nod, she prompts, “Did he in yours?”

He nods, and when he replies it's wistful. "I had a dream once where I was left out, like no matter what I did, no one on the crew would even look at me. But then he was there telling me I belong here."

She stares at him for a moment with a sense of utter recognition, before she looks away and shakes her head. "How strange. Mine was very similar."

“I'm not surprised,” he says immediately, and when she thinks about it, she isn't either. They're the two newest, not nearly as integrated as the others, and it's no wonder that at some point they both needed the same message. Maybe the others did, too, longer ago. "I actually asked him once,” Doc continues, “whether he sees what's in those dreams, or says things in them intentionally. It was that uncanny."

"What did he say?" she asks, more than curious, because she'd say the same of her dream. The circumstances were as vague as dreams ever are, but Marvelous himself was all too real. What she gets in reply is a shrug and a wry smile.

"He laughed at me."

She can't help giggling, because it's all too easy to imagine. “That does sound like him. What do you think, though?”

Doc takes a moment to answer that, thinking. “I think it's us,” he concludes. “But... I also think it's what he would say.”

Ahim nods, slowly. “Yes. I think you're right.”

*

It's a good while later, while he's recovering from injuries, that Marvelous is the one to fall asleep early on the couch. He should be in a real bed, she thinks, but she knows that saying so won't do any good. He's stubborn. But at least he's resting.

This time, she's the last one awake, and just as she's about to settle down herself, she hears a faint distressed sound, and glances over to Marvelous. His face scrunches up and his hand twitches slightly. She's not certain whether that indicates a nightmare or pain under the circumstances, but she feels for him, either way.

She can't help but wonder. Would it work the same way in reverse?

Carefully, she takes a seat next to him, and then very lightly, making sure most of her weight is held by the back of the couch, she leans her head against him. As she feels the tension fade from his shoulders and hears his breath settle, she smiles to herself. Maybe it does work, after all.

Closing her eyes, she decides she'll be very comfortable, too, sleeping like this.

**Author's Note:**

> I've only seen 14 episodes of this series so far, in case that's relevant.


End file.
